The Big Match

Did You Know?

• ITV's regional-based coverage of football ended in 1983, with The Big Match becoming the sole football highlights programme on ITV.
• Between 1997 and 2001 ITV revived the name The Big Match for its FA Cup coverage.

The Match

From 1988 to 1992, Elton Welsby served as the main host of the programme, with Jim Rosenthal occasionally handling touchline reporting and interviews. Brian Moore, a former presenter, frequently provided match commentary, while Alan Parry took over on other occasions. The first live broadcast under this title took place on 30 October 1988, featuring a 1-1 draw between Everton and Manchester United. The show’s coverage heavily emphasised the battle for the First Division title, with a standout moment on 26 May 1989, when Arsenal’s 2-0 victory at Liverpool secured the championship by the slimmest possible margin at their rivals’ expense. ITV lost the rights to the newly formed Premier League to British Sky Broadcasting and the BBC in 1992. The final live top-flight match shown was Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Manchester United on 26 April 1992, a result that confirmed Leeds United as champions after their 3-2 win at Sheffield United earlier that day.

At the start of the 1992-93 season, Welsby left ITV Sport to work full-time for Granada Television, and Ian St John took over as presenter. The programme adopted a new theme tune, “You Are The Number One” by Union, which was also used for ITV’s coverage of the 1992 European Championship. After losing the top division, The Match shifted its focus to the League Cup, the UEFA Cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup, and international matches, airing whenever ITV held the rights to those games. European match rights were sold on a club-by-club basis at the time, except for the UEFA Champions League. ITV kept the rights to the remaining Football League and the League Cup, but coverage of both was largely regional. Many regions broadcast live matches on Sunday afternoons, often using The Match branding, with variations including The Central Match, The Granada Match, The West Match, The Meridian Match, The London Match (renamed The Sunday Match from 1993-94), The Tyne Tees Match (later The North East Match), and Soccer Sunday, which originally came from HTV Wales and was later adopted by other regions. The Central Match, The London Match, and HTV Wales’s Soccer Sunday all used “You Are The Number One” as their theme, and other regions may have followed suit. ITV eventually secured coverage of the new UEFA Champions League, but all programmes for that competition aired under the UEFA Champions League title.

The Big Match Revisited

On 7 February 2008, ITV4 launched a Thursday afternoon slot featuring old episodes of The Big Match, tapping into a nostalgia trend for sports television led by ESPN Classic. Each broadcast came from the exact same week 25 years prior. The initial run, titled The Big Match Revisited, ended on 15 May 2008, wrapping up the 1982–83 season. Most episodes came from London Weekend Television's The Big Match, though some featured Granada Television's Match Time and Television South's The Saturday Match. A second series started on ITV4 on 1 January 2009, covering the second half of the 1978–79 season. Its first episode was Granada's broadcast of West Bromwich Albion's 5–3 victory at Manchester United on 30 December 1978. This series concluded in May with the 1979 FA Cup Final, mixing episodes of The Big Match and Kick Off Match. A third series debuted on BT Sport 2 on 10 July 2017, covering the 1976–77 season, followed immediately by series 4 for the 1974–75 season. Neither aired on ITV4 until 2020. Series 5, for the 1979–80 season, premiered on ITV4 on 20 February 2021, using only The Big Match episodes. Series 6, covering 1980–81, began on 14 August 2021. After The Big Match Revisited's success, ITV ordered Matchtime Revisited, using the same format but with episodes from Granada's Match Time, hosted by Elton Welsby. Its first series started on ITV4 on 26 February 2022, featuring the 1981–82 season. A seventh season of The Big Match Revisited was commissioned in 2023, airing on ITV4 from April 2023. With 34 episodes, it became the longest series yet, covering the 1977–78 season. Series 8, for the 1984–85 season, began in December 2024. Series 9, featuring 1975–76, aired from May 2025. Series 10, covering 1971–72, broadcast from January 2026. Series 11 is scheduled to start in October 2026, all on ITV4. In the 1990s, a similar late-night ITV show called The Big Match Replayed repeated various 1970s editions of The Big Match.

The Big Match on DVD

In April 2009 a series of Big Match titles were released on DVD for clubs including Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Editions due to be released for Liverpool and Arsenal, entitled Match of the 70's, while containing Big Match content, was unable to be released under the name due to contractual issues. May 2009 saw the release of further DVDs in the range, including Big Match releases for West Ham United, Newcastle United, Chelsea. Later editions in the series include discs centered on Everton, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Wolves, Sunderland A.F.C., two volumes of QPR and Leeds United matches and the England national team. As well as selected match highlights, the bonus content includes much additional footage including the Fun Spot, Viewers' Letters, and the surreal sight of Kevin Keegan, Mick Channon and Elton John presenting the show in December 1976. Other highlights include clips of Peter Taylor talking about his ill-fated book on Brian Clough (which led to their split), a 38-year-old Martin Peters, Brazil 1970 and a clip of a 21-year-old Diego Maradona.